Ideas for presention on using SL for RL Education

This was just dropped in my lap. The person who was going to do it had to go out of town unexpectedly. I need to make a presentation in a few days to some State Representatives on the possibilities of using Second Life for RL education - in the case GED and Adult Ed. in a rural area.

This will probably be a fairly short 30-60 minute presentation. I would appreciate suggestions -- locations in SL to visit, information on others doing something similar, etc etc.

Thanks.

I've only given this a few minutes of thought, but if I don't respond now then I probably never will, and I'd like to at least try to help a little. So here's a few ideas... just kinda tossing them out as they come to mind.

One area I think High Schools have traditionally overlooked, or failed to accomplish, is APPLIED education... by this I mean, relating/applying the material to real-life situations that the student can themselves relate to. The "relation" doesn't even necessarily have to be something that the student is already familiar with. For instance: SL minimally acknowledges imported picture dimensions; therefore, I take the pixel dimensions, (say, 1280x800), calculate the ratio (1280 / 800 = 8:5 or 1.6), and then i can use those numbers to resize two dimensions of a box to accurately display the picture (say, 8 / 4 = 2 meters for X, 5 /4 = 1.25 meters for Y)

A few months ago I met a professor who was looking into SL for a similar purpose, but more on the college level. There's multifarious opportunities for research in SL: computer game design, anthropology, sociology, basic programming, graphic design, business, real estate...

Simply learning how to play SL can be an educating experience. Locations are vectors... if you've never in your life known what a vector is, you WILL gain a general understanding soon after logging into SL for the first time.

In terms of GED and Adult Ed, focus on the separate generalized subject categories that need to be taught, layout some of the more specific sub-categories, and then isolate aspects of SL that can aide each of these subjects/categories. like..
Math - (Geometry, Algebra, etc)
Science - (Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy, etc) * i think this one'll be tough
Literal Arts - (Reading & Writing, Typistry, etc)
etc etc

btw I dunno if "typistry" is a word but, i think you'll get my drift.
ok my brain is empty, time to go bounce my virtual representation on a virtual trampoline for a few hours! YAY!

Hi Journy,

I've found that a lot of information on SL can be found quickly yet am having difficulty finding information quickly that is not vague.

I think that Haddock's reply gives a lot of great examples of uses of SL for education and I appreciate and agree with the notion that one can not enter SL and not learn something Yet have thus far found that information on using SL for edu (specifically for more formalized edu that is open to non-traditional formats/the idea of virtual 'classroom') does not go much further than speculation. It seems that a lot of people are considering SL for education and I think it great.

If you are pressed for time I would suggest that you stick with facts (you can spend hours trying to find info via online searching--I have--and find little more after 10 than you did after 1). Look at the system requiremnets, the cost, SL and Linden Labs in general. Are there any other virtual environments out there designed for education? How do they compare? Maybe you can consider how likely people in rural areas are to adopt this technology? How have they respnded to other new technologies? Your local librarian may be able to answer some of these questions from their interaction with patrons.

Good luck to you!
Please do let us know what you find!

p.s. I would suggest you visit:
Infoisland there are a bunch of librarians there
I don't mean to sound like a jerk or down on SL but I do think it best if we all start to discuss some practical applications rather than just our aspirations for SL.

Thanks Seraphima an Haddock for your input ..

Many good points. I agree that the application has to be practical. This particular school has lots of equipment that is not being used because no "real world" teaching incorporates it. Fancy white board and talking head television/video connections are a waste of money if no one uses it.

We are hoping to find ways to actually incorporate SL into the classes taught.

Will keep you updated.

Juorny

About a year ago, Sophia and I made several conference presentations on the educational possibilities of virtual worlds. In it, we demonstrate educational possibilities and introduce a vision mechanism for identifying course content with potential application in virtual worlds, such as Second Life.

An online version is available at:

http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666?ID=SWR0552

Pietro

Hello Journy

I saw an article on boingboing a few weeks ago about an in-game ecosystem, and since then I haven't been able to stop thinking about SL being used in the K12 school market. A company I am involved in has been working with learning management systems for several years now. We are currently looking at various ways of using SL developed content inside public, private and charter schools.

Like Haddock hinted at, it is possible to apply various isoteric actions within SL to real-world educational outcomes. From math, to (simulated) physics and biology and beyond. Once we get in-game Mozilla support things will get rather interesting as you will be able to access (in theroy) any web-based resource, including existing learning management systems.

I would love to talk with you about this topic in-world sometime. I hope to host a bunch of in-game events in the next few weeks to get some discussion going. Before then, please feel free to contact me !

Out of curiosity, when is the presentation ?

Pietro-- Thank you SO MUCH for the link to your presentation. What a great format -- and it gives me some good ideas on things to cover.

Thursday is graduation night for the students -- The State Rep is the spearker.
The School Administrator asked for a quick demo of Second Life and a discussion of its potential for RL education. She is trying to get funding for a pilot project.

Hi everyone,
Thought I'd give you an update on the presentation. The State Rep was late so we had to skip the actual presentation. Instead we discussed Second Life and its potential over dinner. A bit of a harder sell without the visuals. However, he was interested enough to ask for the Second Life website address again at the end of dinner .. so we will see.....

Meanwhile - we have another longer presentation to a school district on an Indian Reservation next week ---

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions --